Sounds at Night

Recently I was wondering if there was a way to help me fall asleep faster, because while I've been able to go to bed earlier by going to bed just a little earlier every night. Ever since I was a kid, I've been lulled by the sound of a... vacuum cleaner! Yep, either that or a hair-dryer, or anything that makes similar sounds.

Lucky me, I found just those sounds! While I'm not sure if they're real, they sound real enough to make me fall asleep within minutes! The shortest I can remember was 2 minutes, which is a real feat for me.

For anyone who may be in the same boat as me, here are the links for the sounds.

There's also running water at that site. Interesting to note is that I've tried regular white noise and that doesn't do anything for me.

This thread isn't really devoted to my strange vacuum-cleaner magic sleep remedy. Does anyone else out there have something that makes them fall asleep a lot faster? A sleep catalyst, if you will? Silence, lawn mowers? Or am I just a lucky guy to have something like this?

Normally, I fall asleep to the sound of 2 computers whirring away in my room...but lately I've needed to shut one off. I think it's cause I got these new noise cancelling headphones that I use before I go to sleep, and the transition of silence to white noise makes it harder to fall asleep..

....not that much harder though, I still manage to fall asleep, just takes a little longer

I can fall asleep anywhere, Point. Usually, I need a really hard task at work to make me do it properly, or a really disinteresting lecture in class.

Actually, I have to read before I sleep. If I don't, I don't feel calmed, and I'm restless, as though I accomplished nothing with my day. On days where I'm just too tired to barely even know what's going on, I can certainly sleep without reading, but on normal nights, I usually need to set aside about an hour of time to read before bed. So that means that when night comes and I say, "Night, p33pz!" on IRC, I'll still not be snoozing for about another hour.

I think I need that time to settle outside of my head for a bit and let my brain relax. But otherwise, I can sleep in any kind of atmosphere, quiet, hot, cold, any. If there's a place for me, there's a place for sleep!

Wow, I find it odd that not only can you sleep with noises like that, it actually helps. That really doesn't make sense to me - any noise will just keep me up forever.

Like a lot of people need to read to sleep, I pretty much need to watch TV (I can sleep without watching TV, but it's a lot harder, particularly if I'm not really tired). It's a bit like what Rance said - I need time outside of my head to let my brain relax. But reading doesn't help me - I find I have to concentrate too much to read something and that just seems to make it harder for me to get to sleep.

I also sleep better if I've watched TV first. The big problem with reading before you go to bed and you always say "Oh, I'll just finish this chapter", and when you finish that, you just have to read the next one because you've got into it... and you end up staying up longer than you planned to.
A TV has a sleep countdown!

I always play on the computer until my parents block my connection, but I load a Monster episode before so I can watch it, then I just go to sleep at around 10. I prefer silence as well, I keep my door open so I wake up when my parents go downstairs though. I sleep quite heavily, especially when I'm tired.

I am really picky about my sleeping conditions. I need perfect silence, no light whatsoever, and not too hot. Usually all this doesnt happen, and I always get rings around my eyes and EVERYBODY asks if I'm high. Its so annoying!

I am really picky about my sleeping conditions. I need perfect silence, no light whatsoever, and not too hot. Usually all this doesnt happen, and I always get rings around my eyes and EVERYBODY asks if I'm high. Its so annoying!

Time is probably the best sleep catalyst for me. With enough of it, I'm out like a light.

. . .I sleep with the fan on, too. I love the feeling of the wind blowing on me while my thick blanket keeps me warm. The gentle hum is pretty soothing as well, but every once in a while, it starts making loud clicking sounds that make sleep kinda difficult...